Orientul Mijlociu

US President Donald Trump’s successful negotiation of a cease-fire that ended the fighting in Gaza and secured the release of Israeli hostages was a significant diplomatic success.

Driven by exhaustion on both sides and the effective application of US leverage following Israel’s strike against Hamas leaders in Doha, the deal featured Israel and Hamas agreeing to terms that both had long resisted: Israel ending fighting without a guarantee of Hamas’s removal from power, and Hamas releasing all hostages without securing Israel’s full withdrawal from Gaza.

While some elements that constitute the Syrian National Army (SNA) have moved away from their revolutionary foundations and turned into a contractor structure for Turkey’s foreign operations across various regional conflicts, others are trying to transform into an organized army under civilian leadership. Although the SNA’s previous attempts at institutionalization and reform through coalitions of factions have failed, its current transformation looks different.

If the new government can deliver justice, contain sectarian tensions, and foster equitable rebuilding, Syria will begin charting a path towards a better future

Damascus, Syria – On the night of the 8th of December 2024, Assad fled his presidential palace aboard a Russian military helicopter. In just 11 days, the house of cards he had fought for more than a decade to protect had come crumbling down.

TOL special operations units affiliated with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in coordination with the International Coalition to fight the Islamic State group, carried out a security operation in the countryside of Deir Ezzor (eastern Syria) on 7 December.

In a statement published on its official platforms on Tuesday, 9 December, the SDF said the operation resulted in the arrest of the Islamic State group’s “military emir”, codenamed “Abu Zubair/Sammak”, along with two members of his cell.

One of the keynote speakers at the conference [hosted by Turkey] was Khaled Mashaal, a senior Hamas leader based in Qatar.

Mashaal declared that the time has come for the Muslim nation to “commit to the liberation of Jerusalem.” He defined this act as the symbol and strategic key to “liberating all of Palestine” — meaning the destruction of Israel and replacing it with an Islamist state.

One year on from Assad’s fall, Syria is still grappling with the ruins of dictatorship, sectarian violence, and a fragile economic future, writes Shady Hamadi.

Violence in Homs raises questions over whether Syria’s new authorities can enforce the rule of law, or if the country risks reproducing patterns of warlordism

In late November and early December, the Syrian central city of Homs descended into a cycle of revenge killings and sectarian-coded attacks that exposed deep fractures in Syria’s nascent post-Bashar Al-Assad governance.

A leak of videos featuring Bashar Al-Assad has sparked outrage in Syria and beyond, with the latest revelation involving his Russian ally, Vladimir Putin.

Bashar Al-Assad mocked his Russian ally, President Vladimir Putin, according to a series of leaked videos where the former dictator shows his callous disregard for Syrians’ suffering.